


Point of Intersection

by Notadate (sixbeforelunch)



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Female Friendship, Gen, Host/Tok'ra relationship, Pre-Canon, Tok'ra
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-12-01
Updated: 2008-12-01
Packaged: 2017-10-07 05:15:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/61769
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sixbeforelunch/pseuds/Notadate
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Of all the amoral former hosts I've spent time with, I wanted to kill you the least."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Point of Intersection

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings for off-screen sexual assault and off-screen torture.

The shower is made for emergency decontamination; there's no quick or easy way to turn the pressure down or the temperature up. Lukewarm water beating against bruised and broken skin is surely not what the woman wants, but Anise is familiar with no less than a hundred and six different infectious diseases that can result from conditions such as the ones this woman has endured. A shower is the first step to mitigating those risks.

Freya thinks, _Poor woman._

Anise places a bottle of soap on the floor of the shower, but the woman makes no move for it. The digital read out on the side of the shower stall automatically analyzes the the substances being washed down the drain. It tells her there is blood with the presence of a Goa'uld protein marker and naquada, clay with a high iron content, saliva belonging to fifteen distinct individuals, and urine belonging to two human males.

Anise waits a while longer to see if the woman will take the soap, but she remains all but motionless under the spray of the water. Finally Anise thinks to leave her there and go back to her research, but Freya's prodding makes her step into the shower instead.

She kneels down in front of the woman, heedless of her own now soaked clothing.

"Do you have a name?"

The woman just stares at her, through her, as if she weren't even there.

Anise purses her lips together. "If I touch you, will you attack me?"

The water plasters her hair to her forehead. The only sound in the shower is the beating of water against the floor. She gets no answer from the woman.

There is a very delicate and time consuming experiment that needs her attention waiting for her in her lab, but Anise picks up the soap and starts washing the woman's hair. It's long and dark, matted in places and so tangled at the ends that some knots will have to be cut out. Anise ran a clinical eye over the woman when she first arrived, but up close the damage is easier to see. Her nails are ragged and torn, one bleeding. The bruises that cover her torso and limbs range from deep purple to light green. The woman will need several days care before she is sufficiently healed to be sent away.

_What about the psychological damage?_ Freya asks.

_Not our concern,_ Anise replies. Lantash asked—ordered—only that Anise care for the woman's physical damage. It's hardly her problem if her mind has been shattered and even if it were, she's hardly equipped to help.

The woman makes a sound in her throat when the soap touches a cut on her face. It's startling to hear her make a noise.

Anise carefully rinses the soap away. "I'm sorry."

The woman finally looks at her then. Her dark eyes are frightened and angry.

When Anise takes her out of the shower, the woman stands for a few moments on shaky legs, then slumps against the wall as though she can't stand on her own without support. She stays there, dripping on the floor, looking around and seeing nothing. Or everything.

"I don't have a healing device," Anise says. The Tok'ra counsel ordered her to turn hers over to a field operative several days ago. "You're going to have to recover on your own."

The woman's eyes focus on her for an instant and then unfocus again, staring into nothing.

Anise sighs. Lantash and Martouf instigated the rebellion that had led to Quetesh's ultimate death, but she is left to deal with the former host. Hardly fair.

The woman nods, a delayed reaction to what Anise said or a response to something else entirely, she isn't sure. Anise simply shakes her head and finds an old tunic for the woman to wear. Her hands shake when she tries to get dressed.

_Let me talk to her,_ Freya says, and Anise is more than happy to let her.

But Freya fairs no better in getting a response from the woman and they're both relieved when she falls asleep as soon as they show her to a bed.

The woman sleeps for over a day while Anise loses herself in her research, only stopping when Freya reminds her that she would like to eat now or that they should check on the woman. Freya insists on being the one to speak with the woman when she finally does wake up.

"Hi," Freya says softly. The woman stares at her. "Do you remember me."

"Tok'ra," the woman says. It's barely a whisper, but she spits the word like an insult.

"I'm Freya. I'm host to Anise."

The woman looks away at the far wall.

"How do you feel?" Freya asks and gets no answer. She sighs. "Will you tell me your name?"

"Vala."

"Vala. Are you hungry?" The woman still doesn't answer. "Lantash asked us to take care of you—"

The woman stiffens. "Don't say that name."

Freya looks at Vala's hands so Anise can judge their recovery. "What the crowd did to you wasn't Lantash's fault. They were acting out anger directed at Quetesh—"

"He tortured me," Vala says.

If Anise wasn't letting Freya have motor control, she would roll her eyes. She settles for a mental sigh. At least now she knows why Lantash dumped the woman on her.

"He tortured Quetesh," Freya says. "It's unfortunate you had to be involved."

"Have you ever been tortured?" Vala asks.

Anise starts to take control back, to let Freya retreat because that is something Freya does not like to think about, but Freya pushes her attempt aside. "Yes," she says simply.

"And you're okay with your people doing it to others despite that?"

"Because of it," Freya says. Her voice is intense, angry. "Because I know what the Goa'uld are like and that anything that leads to their downfall is justified."

Vala starts trembling, shaking violently all over. Freya stands up. "I'll bring you something to drink," she says.

Anise takes control back as soon as they leave the room and lets Freya stay hidden away in her own mind for the rest of the day while Anise reviews the chemical analysis from the prototype symbiote poison. She hears Vala crying, sometimes softly, sometimes uncontrollably throughout most of the day.

She's going to kill Lantash for this. Her work is far too important to be interrupted by humanitarian aid simply because Lantash feels guilty that he had to torture this woman. And now Freya is locked inside her own mind, not even offering suggestions on how to deal with the woman, reliving her own treatment at Ra's hands all those many years ago.

By evening, the woman is silent, no longer crying. Anise registers the quiet thankfully, but checks on her anyway, just to make sure she's okay. Vala is stretched out on the bed, her face is red and blotchy from crying. There's still a tremor in her hands and feet, probably a side effect from the removal of the symbiote. Anise picks up the cold cup of tea and realizes that Vala hasn't eaten since she arrived and for however long before she arrived. She's thin, nearly swallowed by the Tok'ra tunic that Anise gave her to wear and looks so fragile. Asleep, she looks almost like a child.

_Maternal instincts?_

_I can hardly have maternal instincts when I don't have the capacity to reproduce,_ Anise replies. Freya forgets sometimes that Anise is not female for all that it prefers female hosts and has taken to referring to itself in feminine terms.

Freya teases her again when she makes Vala a meal and leaves it on the table. Anise is tactful enough not to mention the twinge that Freya feels in teasing Anise. Freya would have liked to have children, but Anise could never go dormant for so long. She has too much work to do.

The next day, Anise is so engrossed in her work that she hardly hears the woman come into the lab until she speaks.

"It's beautiful."

Anise looks away from the computer. Vala is standing by tiny octagonal window, looking at the barren expanse outside. It's a luxury, that window. Tok'ra tunnels are usually completely underground, but on this barren rock, the tiny protrusion on the surface of the planet is impossible to see from space and is very unlikely to lead to her being detected. She's not certain what there is to find beautiful about cratered rock and ice, but when she gets up to look, she sees it. The small planet where Anise has set up her lab rotates very slowly. Sunrise is a rare event and it is indeed beautiful. She even mentally nudges Freya who has fallen asleep to see it.

"Am I a prisoner here?" Vala asks as they stand watching the thin atmosphere light up in colors.

"No. You can leave whenever you like. However, there is no stargate in this system and I cannot allow you to take my ship or I will be left with no means of escape should this location be found by the Goa'uld."

"So I am a prisoner."

Anise hesitates. "By default, yes."

"Suppose I should be used to it by now. Being held prisoner by a Goa'uld."

"I am not Goa'uld," Anise says, much too loudly.

Vala smiles at her. "It has emotions after all. Where's the host?"

"Present. Tired. Your presence brings back bad memories for her."

"My presence brings up bad memories for me, but I can't be rid of myself, now can I?"

Anise just shrugs. Vala exhausts her. She prefers her labs, prefers her experiments. Other sentient life forms, humans, other Tok'ra, Goa'uld, she finds them taxing. She always has.

Vala turns away from the window. "What are you working on?"

"Several things, all of them very important."

"Things that will kill the Goa'uld?"

"Yes."

"Then maybe you have a purpose after all." Vala runs her fingers along a data crystal. "Quetesh was working on something like this. Maybe. I think."

"Most likely. More efficient hyperdrive technology has been coveted for centuries by the Goa'uld."

Vala picks the crystal up and holds it to the light.

"Do you remember any of her research?"

Vala looks at her and sets the crystal down. "No."

"Are you certain?"

"Yes. I'm sure I don't."

"If you tried—"

"I'm very certain I don't want to try."

Anise opens her mouth, but Freya stops her before she says anything. _You always say the wrong thing._

When it comes to humans especially, that's not untrue.

"Anise is very focused on her research," Freya says. "She forgets sometimes that there's a human cost involved."

"Are you going to tell me you were a host now too?"

"No," Freya says. "Only a slave." She nearly chokes on the word 'only.'

Vala sits down on a stool. "It's like I still have her thoughts in my mind. Like she's gone, but not."

Synaptic pattern transfer, Anise thinks. It will take years to fully fade.

"As hard as it is to believe right now, Quetesh has left you with a gift."

"Really? A gift? The memory of slaughtering thousands of innocent—of forcing people to do the most depraved and disgusting things in the name of entertainment, you call that a gift?"

"No," Freya says. "But she left you with naquada in your blood which will allow you to operate Goa'uld technology. And with the knowledge of how that technology works. If you're willing to access it."

"I'm not," Vala says and gets up, disappears back into the area Anise has turned into a bedchamber. Anise has not slept since Vala was dropped into her care, and Freya is complaining that even if her mind can sleep while Anise remains active, her body needs rest too. Anise counters that she can heal the wear to the muscle and organ tissue of Freya's body as well as any rest cycle could. Freya insists she still feels tired and no amount of logic will dissuade her. Humans are hopeless sometimes.

Perhaps the Tok'ra counsel will allow her to take a more primitive primate as a host when Freya dies. Anything with opposable thumbs will do. She's careful to keep that thought from Freya, though. She doesn't need her angry at her on top of everything else.

Vala comes in each day and fiddles with the projects on Anise's table. Anise spends most of her time following behind her, but Vala is surprisingly careful and breaks nothing and Anise finds herself explaining the experiments to her.

Vala is sharp, but her presence is still a distraction. Anise sends a message to the Tok'ra counsel, urging them to send a ship for the woman. She has healed more quickly than Anise had thought she would and she is sufficiently able to care for herself now. Freya is more troubled than usual and Anise misses the quiet peace of her solitude.

The Tok'ra counsel answers her message swiftly and curtly. They have no ships to spare now. There is much activity among the System Lords and the cause is unknown. Anise will have to deal with her guest for a while yet.

Forced to keep Vala for the time being, Anise starts a log file on her. If she must deal with the woman, she will at least do it on terms she understands.

_Day 13, Vala appears to be engaging her environment on a more regular basis. She is less withdrawn and far more active. She becomes more distracting with each passing day._

I find the lack of available information on host psychology to be an inexcusable oversight and will urge the Tok'ra counsel to assign a scientist to study the phenomenon.

"I'm bored."

"Read."

"That's boring."

"You are free to go for a walk. Outside."

Vala grins. "It's cold enough out there to turn nitrogen into liquid."

Anise looks up. "You've been paying attention."

"Sometimes."

"Always. Though you hide it well."

"Not well enough."

Anise sets down her tools. "Why would you wish to hide how astute you are?"

"You don't know very much of the wider galaxy, do you?"

_Day 15, Vala appears to have access to a great deal of what Quetesh left in her mind. The awareness appears to straddle the conscious and the unconscious, as she is able to recall the information quickly and as needed, but is unaware (or claims to be unaware) of how the origin of the knowledge. Freya tells me that I should allow her to remain in ignorance and I have decided to accept this advice._

Vala is inventive in her applications of technology. I attempted to place safeguards to prevent her from accessing the laboratory unaccompanied, but she has proved adept in bypassing them.

The explosion is small and contained. Anise's reaction less so.

"Are you completely incapable of focusing on your task? Or do you simply enjoy causing destruction?"

"A little of both, I think," Vala says. "I'm bored."

"I've tried to give you things to do."

"I'm still bored. Let me borrow your ship."

"No."

_Day 17, Vala has tried and failed twice to steal the cargo ship that is currently my only means of escape should this lab be discovered by the Goa'uld. I suspect it is only a matter of time until she succeeds. I believe I am about to give her what she wants and take her to the nearest stargate._

"I knew you'd see reason."

_Day 18, I have decided to discontinue this log as Vala has discovered it and is now following me around, mimicking it._

"Day 19, Anise has finally given in and is taking me to a stargate."

"Stop that."

"She has proved to be a tough one to crack, but through skilled application of psychological tricks, I've succeeded in manipulating her."

"Shut up right now or I will jettison you into space."

_She's got you down cold, you know._

"Shut up."

"I didn't say anything."

"I was talking to Freya," Anise says through gritted teeth.

Vala pulls her knees up to her chest and looks out at the hyperspace window that's filling the view screen. "Quetesh used to send this pain up my spine when she thought I was being annoying. It made me want to throw up, but she wouldn't let me. Throwing up was too undignified for a goddess. She'd let me be horribly nauseous for hours afterward, though."

Anise can't think of anything to say to that, so she says nothing. Freya has nothing to say either, but Anise feels her surge of gratitude that despite the fact that Anise ultimately has the most power in the relationship, she has never been so cruel.

"I'm glad she's dead," Vala says. "Despite everything that came before and after." She pauses and twists a strand of hair between her fingers. "I still hate Lantash, though."

Anise shrugs. She doesn't much care for Lantash either. And despite what Freya might say, it's not because he chose Jolinar instead of her.

_If that helps you sleep at night._

_Shut up,_ Anise says, just barely managing not to say it out loud despite the fact that she's got motor control for the duration of the trip because Freya hates piloting a cargo ship.

This journey is completely stupid. It's taking up valuable time and it's insanely risky. Plotting out a course that would avoid any major Goa'uld strongholds or troop movements tied up the computer for hours.

"I'm only doing this because you kept blowing things up. And because I tired of watching you fail to steal my ship."

"Who said I failed?" Vala asks. When Anise looks at her, she adds, "I wasn't going to just take it and strand you there. That would have been rude."

Fortunately, they arrive at the planet where Anise has agreed to leave Vala shortly after that.

Anise lands the ship in a field filled with cargo ships, Al'kesh, and other ships of assorted alien technology.

"Impressed that humans have managed to find some space for themselves outside of all the Goa'uld intrigue?" Vala asks.

"Yes."

Vala just shakes her head at her, bouncing on the balls of her feet and looking truly excited for the first time Anise has seen. "I'd say it's been fun, but it hasn't so—"

Anise frowns past her, recognizing body language before a face. She rushes past Vala, through the throng of people and ships to where she saw the woman. Vala is chasing after her. When Anise rounds a corner, she gets a fist in her face, and the power behind it tells her she is facing a fellow Tok'ra.

She lays on the ground, blinking up at the woman who felled her.

"Are you insane?" Jolinar all but shouts.

Vala chooses then to come on the scene. She looks down at Anise, looks at Jolinar. She sounds disappointed when she speaks. "Oh. I thought maybe you'd seen something valuable."

Jolinar helps her to her feet. "Why are you chasing me. Did the Tok'ra counsel send you?"

It's a ridiculous question. The Tok'ra counsel would never waste her abilities on field work.

_And you're very bad at it_, Freya says.

"No. I came to get rid of her." She gestures to Vala.

"The former host of Quetesh," Jolinar says.

"My name is Vala Mal Doran."

"Of course," Jolinar says, without apology. She turns to Anise. "Why did you chase me?"

"I...wanted to know why you were here," she admits. Jolinar's incredulity is nearly palpable and Vala snorts in derision. She really is very bad at field work.

"I am here because my place in Apophis court was compromised in the upset currently sweeping the System Lords and I thought I could hide easily on this planet. I did not count on overly curious people who belong in a lab chasing me."

"What upset?" Vala asks, suddenly actually interested in the conversation.

Jolinar glances between them. "Ra is dead. His ship destroyed with him aboard. No one knows how or by who. Scans of the area show high levels of radiation. Likely a thermonuclear device. Given how primitive the people on his worlds are, we are forced to conclude that the rebellion on the planet his ship was orbiting was coincidental, though that does seem unlikely. Several System Lords have claimed responsibility, but none of them are credible. Not a Tok'ra plot either." The shock that reverberates through Freya is nearly too much for Anise to handle. Fortunately, Jolinar doesn't expect a response. "I am leaving through the stargate now. I trust you will refrain from following me or getting yourself killed."

Anise nods dumbly and watches her disappear back into the crowd.

Vala lays a hand on her shoulder. "You look like a woman who needs a drink."

"Ra was the one who tortured Freya," Anise says.

Vala pushes her through the crowd. "Drink first, talk later."

They end up in a small tavern, populated mostly by people with large weapons and questionable hygiene. Vala fingers her clean robes as they work their way through the crowd to a table near the back of the room. "I need new clothes."

Vala tells the bartender to bring them copious amounts of the hardest liquor he has and pays him with a small gold coin that she must have procured since landing on the planet. Freya is mostly calm now, the shock worn off and something like relief settling in. Vala sips her alcohol and asks, "What happened? And let Freya out to tell it. I'm paying for her to get liquored up, she should be allowed to talk."

It's more likely that whoever Vala pick-pocketed is paying for it, but Freya tells the story anyway.

"I was born on a planet that had been conquered by Yu millennia ago. Yu is a fair ruler, for a Goa'uld. As long as we gave tribute and didn't rebel, we were left alone. But Yu gave the planet to Ra as part of a trade deal. And after we were given to Ra, he sent a representative to gather up attractive women and men to serve as slaves on his ships."

"Ra likes—liked little boys."

"The members of his court don't. Not all of them." Freya sighs and starts to shake. Anise starts to take control and stop the shaking, but Freya pushes her away and swallows the last of her drink. Vala gestures for the bartender to refill it. Freya runs a hand through her hair. "There was a human, a slave of Ra, but senior in the ranks, he was the first one to have me. He made me get on my knees and he, um."

"I think I know what comes next," Vala says. "What did you do?"

"I bit him."

Vala chokes on her drink. "On purpose?"

"Accidentally...on purpose," Freya says. "I was angry and scared and no one had ever forced me to do something like that before. Ra was livid. He tortured me in front of everyone for hours and hours." She's shaking in earnest now and swallows her second drink. Anise forces herself not to metabolize the drug, to allow it to act as a depressant on Freya's system. "I thought it would never end. I don't know why he didn't kill me as soon as he got bored, but he put the execution off for the morning. Aldwin was in the crowd that was watching me be tortured. I think he was impressed by what I'd done. Or amused." She smiles. "I did a lot of damage and Ra refused to heal the slave."

Vala grins.

"I do understand," Freya says softly.

Vala's grin disappears. She throws back another drink, her fourth, and frowns at the empty cup. "This isn't working very well."

Anise takes control back from Freya. "Quetesh likely left your metabolism permanently altered."

Vala stares at her, wheels turning in her intelligent eyes. "I can't get drunk."

"With time and effort and a strong enough alcohol, perhaps."

Vala buries her face in her hands. It takes Anise a moment to realize she's crying. "You may find it a benefit in some situations."

"Oh shut up," Vala says. She wipes her eyes with the back of her hand and laughs a little hysterically and Anise remembers that this is a woman who was nearly comatose from the trauma she had suffered just nineteen days ago. Vala tosses another gold coin onto the table and stands up. She tugs at Anise's arm. "Let's go. If I can't get drunk, I can at least go shopping."

"I should return to my lab. Once Jolinar reports to the High Counsel, I will probably be contacted, and it would be better to be present at my assignment when I am reprimanded."

"You owe me," Vala says.

There is no possible logic that could make that be the case, but Anise finds herself trailing after her anyway. The markets of the planet are full of technology, most of it worthless, and jewels, most of them ugly and worthless, and weapons, all of them deadly and expensive. Vala steps into a store offering clothing and after a moment's hesitation, Anise steps in after her. The store is small and dark and the woman sitting on the floor near the center smells strongly of wine. There are long dresses in a myriad of styles and colors. Anise runs a finger over the silk of a long yellow dress with silver beads on the bodice.

Behind her she hears Vala squeal with delight and sees her disappear behind a curtain which has been draped across one corner of the store. When she emerges, her simple Tok'ra-style robe is in her arms and she is wearing a pair of tight leather pants dyed a deep brown and a green shirt that covers her arms but bears her stomach.

"Much better," Vala declares. She tosses the robe back to Anise who catches it and, not knowing what to do with it, sets it on the ground. "I'm in a charitable mood. Try something on."

"I think not," Anise says.

"Come on. Consider it a celebration. Ra's dead."

The woman sitting on the floor who, appearances to the contrary, seems to be the shopkeeper, looks up. "Ra is dead?"

"Go back to your stupor," Vala says. She picks up a dress and holds it up against Anise's—well Freya's—frame. "I'll bet you've got a decent body under all those robes."

"It's very small."

Vala shrugs and tries on a pair of sandals. "So? What is it with you people? No sense of taste at all."

Freya likes the dress and she's had a hard day. So Anise steps behind the curtain and tries it on. When she steps out and looks at herself in the mirror it is something of a shock. The dress is red leather, short and tight.

"Looks good on you," Vala says.

"Freya likes it."

"I was talking to Freya."

Vala pays the shopkeeper with her stolen money and Anise gathers the robes to carry them back to the cargo ship. Vala stands outside of the store with her, rubbing the back of her neck. "Look," Vala says. "I'm not going to pretend that I actually like you, or will miss you or anything. But of all the Tok'ra I've ever met, I think I hate you the least."

Anise notices several men glancing at her, some surreptitiously, some leering. Interesting. She looks at Vala. "Of all the amoral former hosts I've spent time with, I wanted to kill you the least."

"You wanted to kill me the most too, didn't you?"

Anise just shrugs and Vala laughs and disappears into the crowd without saying goodbye.

The ride back to her lab is long and blessedly quiet. She doesn't miss Vala, not really. She misses having someone to explain things to, but Freya is far better conversation, even if she doesn't care for the details of crystal technology.

When she arrives, Aldwin is standing in the middle of her lab. He frowns at her when she walks in.

"You could have gotten Jolinar killed. Martouf is livid with you. I would avoid him for the next few decades."

Martouf forgives more easily than that, he's far calmer than Lantash. But she lets the statement go without comment.

"You should—" Aldwin pauses and looks her over. "What are you wearing?"

"Freya likes it," Anise replies, maybe just a little more stubbornly than necessary. She's decided she doesn't care what they wear and Freya, when she isn't admiring her reflection, has decided she will make all clothing decisions from now on. It keeps her from thinking about Ra, at least.

"Oh," Aldwin says. "Quetesh's host?"

"Gone. Freya misses her."

Aldwin walks to the small window, his anger seemingly abated. He always has had a soft spot for Freya and neither of them is above exploiting it. "Do you think she'll be okay?"

"Who can tell?" Humans have such short lives. Anise hopes only that Vala's remaining years, however many they be, contain some happiness.

_You miss her too,_ Freya says.

"Maybe a little," Anise admits. Aldwin glances at her, but lets the statement go without question.

*

Daniel is walking down the ramp, mud in his hair and on his BDU, when he starts buzzing. It takes him a few minutes to find the source.

"You took your blackberry to another planet?" Cameron asks. "I don't think your coverage area extends that far."

Daniel gives him a tight smile and says, "It wasn't on purpose. I was messing with the settings earlier and I put it in my pack without thinking."

"It's his new toy," Vala says, snatching it away from him.

Daniel grabs it back and says, "It's my new leash. They forced it on me. I hate it." But he looks fascinated as he tries to figure out why it keeps buzzing. When he finally does, he curses. "206 new e-mails since I've been gone. I—oh."

"What?"

"Anise is dead."

Vala goes still, but Teal'c just raises an eyebrow and Sam says, "Huh."

Daniel holds out the blackberry for them, but Vala is standing off to one side and can't see the screen.

"General O'Neill's mama never taught him not to speak ill of the dead," Cameron says.

Vala snatches the tiny computer away from him and peers at it.

With O'Neill's characteristic disregard for capitalization, is says, "ding dong tokra barbie is dead."

"That's not very nice," Sam says.

Daniel shrugs. "It's Jack."

"How did she die?"

"Lab accident," Landry says, having finally made his way down to the gate room.

"When?"

"Several months ago."

Months. Of course, the Tok'ra wouldn't make it a high priority to tell the Tau'ri. Vala wonders how they even found out, but she doesn't bother to ask.

"Tok'ra Barbie?"

"Oh," Daniel says. "It's a reference to the doll—"

"I know what it's a reference too, Daniel. Why would he call her that?"

"Well she used to wear these outfits that, um," Daniel shrugs. "Diplomacy has never been Jack's strong point. Did you...you knew her?"

Vala pushes the blackberry back into Daniel's hands, so roughly that he drops it and it clangs on the metal ramp. "I knew her." But she's not in the mood to explain it to any of them and walks away saying only, "I have mud in my hair."

She can picture their concerned glances and she ignores Daniel calling her name. She refuses to talk about it later, either, but the next time O'Neill visits, she puts on a tiny pink miniskirt and a halter top. O'Neill opens his mouth to say something, but Daniel puts a finger to his own lips and O'Neill wisely follows the advice.

end


End file.
